Prince Harry has visited amputees and wounded military personnel at an orthopaedic clinic in Ukraine, after spending two days at the high court in London appealing against the government’s decision to strip him of his security protection while he is in the UK.
The prince, 40, met with wounded veterans at the Superhumans Centre in Lviv, which treats and rehabilitates injured military personnel and civilians, including children, affected by the war.
Harry, who served 10 years in the British army, was accompanied by a contingent from the Invictus Games Foundation, including four veterans who have been through similar rehabilitation experiences.
He was given a tour of the centre, which provides prosthetics, reconstructive surgery and psychological help free of charge, and is also understood to have met with Ukraine’s minister of veterans affairs, Natalia Kalmykova.
The centre sees more than 3,000 patients a year, according to its website.
It is in western Ukraine, an area that has frequently been targeted by Russian missiles, and the visit was not announced until after Harry was out of the country.
In February, the prince met with the Superhumans chief executive, Olga Rudneva, at the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style sporting competition for injured and sick military personnel and veterans, in Canada.
She presented him with a bracelet from the rehabilitation centre, created for all the centre’s ambassadors, which has the words “Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire” written on it in English and Ukrainian.
She also gave him a personal gift from a double amputee, a veteran who had met Harry on ski slopes in Whistler.
Harry is the second member of the royal family to visit Ukraine since the war in Russia began in 2022. His aunt Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, also made an unannounced visit to the country last year.
Other members of the royal family have also openly shown their support for the war-torn nation. King Charles had tea with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at his Norfolk estate last month, just two days after a meeting between Donald Trump and Zelenskyy at the White House descended into acrimony in front of the world’s media.
Prince William also met with Ukrainian refugees during a two day visit to Estonia last month.
